1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for creating, modifying and manipulating charts and diagrams using computers. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and methods for producing and displaying controls for the automatic generation of chart and diagram elements. The present invention also relates to systems and methods for displaying active portions of a display in a visually distinct manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of personal computers has become widespread for a variety of functions and applications in business and education. One such application of computers is their use for producing, printing and displaying graphical images. Still more particularly, a variety of application programs have been developed for creating flowcharts, organizational charts and various other diagrams. Such existing systems provide for the creation of various drawing elements and their interconnection. For example, there are a variety of very complex computer aided design or drafting programs for creating any type of mechanical, electrical and architectural drawings. There are also more simplistic drawing programs for creating only flowcharts or only organizational charts.
One major problem with the existing flowcharting and drawing programs is that they are very difficult to use. The complex computer aided design programs usually require a significant amount of training to be used and are typically only used by skilled draftspersons. Even the more simplistic drawing programs with reduced functionality are cumbersome and difficult to use. For example, existing systems require a number of key strokes or inputs from a mouse type controller to created a simple shape or symbol in a chart, such as a rectangular box. To create a flowchart symbol, a symbol is first chosen from the symbol palette or menu displayed on a monitor. The symbol is then dragged and dropped using a mouse type controller into a desired position in the drawing. Alternatively, the symbol could be created and positioned using various other keystrokes or combinations of keystrokes and mouse inputs. Once the symbol has been added, it typically must be connected with other elements in the drawing. This requires similar manipulations of the input device to add a simple connecting line. Having to repeatedly reposition the cursor from one area of the drawing to a palette or menu for adding each element or changing the functionality provided by manipulation of the cursor is highly inefficient. Creating and printing such drawings is therefore very labor intensive and time consuming. Thus, there is needed for system the makes drawing elements easier to create.
A number of drawing programs have increased the functionality they provide with the ability to create in a single drawing various charts types such as bar charts, graphs, flowcharts and organizational charts. As with other prior art drawing programs, these multiple chart type drawing programs suffer from the problems of being cumbersome to use. Because the sets of tools available for use with each chart type varies, these multiple chart type programs have increased complexity which makes them more difficult to use. A particular problem for such drawing programs with multiple chart types is effectively identifying the portions of a drawing upon which particular tools operate. Since the elements of a drawing upon which a tool can operate are not effectively identified, the user must engage in a trial and error process that wastes time and makes the drawing programs difficult to use.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and methods providing for the automatic generation and connection of chart and diagram elements that significantly simplifies the process of creating charts and diagrams. Further, there is a need for a system and method for displaying active portions of the display in a visually distinct manner so that the user can quickly recognize the portion of a display device that is active.